The 2026 NFL regular season gets underway in just over two weeks, and a vast majority of Fantasy football drafts will go on the clock during that span. Avoiding 2026 Fantasy football busts is one of the best ways to win a league as players such as Lamar Jackson, Justin Jefferson, Brian Thomas Jr. and Bucky Irving left gaping holes in Fantasy lineups last season due to injury and/or ineffective play. Who should you target in your fantasy football draft strategy, and which players should fall on your list of potential 2026 Fantasy football busts and riskiest picks?
Before finalizing your 2026 Fantasy football draft strategy, be sure to check out the 2026 Fantasy football rankings and cheat sheets from the proven computer model at SportsLine. Last year, the model accurately predicted that Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin would fall well short of his top-50 ADP. The result: A season after piling up nearly 1,100 receiving yards and a career-high 13 touchdown catches, McLaurin had career lows in receiving yards (582) and receiving touchdowns (3).
Injuries were a factor, but his per-game averages were down across the board as well, so anybody who avoided him in Fantasy drafts dodged a major headache. The same model has a proven track record providing Fantasy football tips, identifying A.J. Brown as a sleeper in 2020, nailing Jonathan Taylor's monstrous season in 2021 and correctly predicting C.J.
Stroud would take a step back in 2024. Additionally, it's called past Fantasy football sleepers like Derrick Henry in 2019, Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara in 2018, and Davante Adams in 2017. Now, SportsLine has simulated the entire NFL season 10,000 times and released its latest Fantasy football rankings 2026, along with plenty of sleepers, breakouts and busts.
Head to SportsLine now to see them. One of the 2026 Fantasy football busts the model is predicting: New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers. He's going off the board around pick No. 33, but SportsLine's model doesn't even have him as a top-15 receiver.
In fact, it has players such as DeVonta Smith and Nico Collins above him. Nabers isn't a lock to be ready to at the start of the season after tearing his ACL last season and then undergoing a follow-up procedure in the spring. The Giants are also expected to lean heavily on the run game under offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, making Nabers a risky pick in the second or early third round.
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